Improvement in water-wheels



UNITED STATES PATENT OFFICE.

J. C. SIMONDS AND FREEMAN GODFREY, OF GRAND RAPIDS, MICHIGAN.

IMPROVEMENT IN WATER-WHEELS.

Specification formlng part of Letters Patent No. 44,227, dated Septenicr 13, 1864.

To all whom it may concern:

Be it known that we, J. C. SIMONDS and FREEMAN GoDFREY, both of Grand Rapids, in the county oi' Kent and State of Michigan, have invented a new and Improved Water- Wheel; and we do hereby declare that the following is a full, clear, and exact description ot' the saine, reference being had to the accompanying drawings, making a part of this specification, in which- Figure 1 is a side view ot` our invention; Fig. 2,a plan or top view ofthe saine; Fig. 3, a vertical section vof the same taken in the i line a: ir, Fig. 2.

Similar letters ot' reference indicate corresponding parts-in the several figures.

in which the water passes underneath thev wheel and out through the top of the same.`

To enable those skilled in the art to fully understand and construct our invention, we will proceed to describe it.

The wheel is composed ot' a central hub, a., of cylindrical form, through which the shaft A passes, and an outer rim, b, between which and the hub a are the buckets c. These bucketscare of a spiral form, their lower edges having a radial position, and as they extend upward and backward the spiral curve is gradually flattened, as shown at d in Fig 3, and they are gradually inclined downward from their inner to their outer edges, so that their upper edges will be inclined about ten degrees from a horizontal line. The upper edges of the buckets have nearly a tangential position with the hub a, so that the outer end of the upper edge of one bucket will be nearly in a radial line with the inner edge ofthe adjoining bucket, as shown in Fig. 2, and the spaces between the buckets gradually contract from their lower to their upper ends and the issuesthat is to say, the upper ends ofthe spaces between the buckets, owing to the winding spiral form of the latter,

are dieper or wider atl their outer than at thtir inner ends. By this form and arrangenitnof the buckets, the wheel offers the least possible resistance to the tail or back water and the water is allowed to escape from the issues freely or in a direction which the centrifugal force of the wheel would naturally impel it; hence the water is`not allowed to act as a drag upon the wheel, and the water acts or iinpinges upon. the buckets at right angles. In the under side of the hub a ofthe wheel there is made a circular recess, e, which forms a ange, f, all around the lower edge of the hub, and this flange tits and works in a recess or rabbet. g, at the upper edge of the block h, on which the shaft A is stepped. (See Fig. 3.) The water passes into a scroll, C, underneath the wheel. The lower edge of the riin b of the wheel is provided with a horizontal `flange, t', which works within a riin,j, on the bed D, in which the scroll (l is formed or made. lllis scroll C is circular in its horizontal section, its bottom k being ot' a scroll or spiral form, as shown chiey by dotted lines in Figs. 1 and 3. This scroll or spiral water-passage gives a proper upward direction to the water, while the flange fforms a smooth, unbroken surface at the inner side of the scroll or water-passe ge around the step of shaft A.

Having thus described our invention, what we claim as new, and desire. to secure by Letters Patent, is-

The circular recess c in the bottom` of the hub a, of the wheel forming the flange f,to iit and work in the recess or rabbet g in the block h in its arrangement with the scroll or spiral waterpassage C, substantially as and for the purpose specitied.

J. C. SIMONDS. FREEMAN GODFREY.

Witnesses J AMES N. DAVIS, B. A. HABLAN. 

